Security Systems News - stageshttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/taxonomy/term/1796
enAvantGuard offers hybrid monitoring optionshttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/avantguard-offers-hybrid-monitoring-options
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<div class="field-item even">Options could provide transitioning phases between operating a monitoring center and contracting</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2017-02-08T00:00:00-05:00">02/08/2017</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Spencer Ives</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>OGDEN, Utah—AvantGuard Monitoring is now offering dealers several new monitoring options, including redundant monitoring capabilities, providing the back end to local operators, and part-time monitoring for an account base.</p>
<p>“Hybrid monitoring, in many ways, allows you to outsource the pieces of your monitoring that you may or may not want to do, whether it be the technology side or complete redundancy, and lean on a third party monitoring platform such as AvantGuard,” Justin Bailey, AvantGuard’s COO, told <em>Security Systems News</em>.</p>
<p>AvantGuard has identified three different options under the new umbrella of hybrid monitoring, according to Bailey. With one option, dealers can maintain their central station, complete with receivers and operators, and have AvantGuard’s centers serve as back-up facilities.</p>
<p>A second option would be for AvantGuard to maintain the back-end, with alarm dealers having local operators at in-house workstations responding to alarms in their account base. This option is similar to a cloud-based monitoring model; however, this option comes supported with AvantGuard’s facilities for back-up, Bailey said.</p>
<p>With a third option, dealers could have local operators for some of the time, such as normal business hours, while AvantGuard’s centers monitor overnight, on weekends or on holidays. AvantGuard would also tailor each of these offerings to best fit the needs of individual dealers, Bailey added.</p>
<p>How will the company keep track of which accounts are and are not being monitored by AvantGuard? “The stages platform is set up in a way that those accounts can be kept separate, really a lot like what we do with our current dealers,” Bailey said.</p>
<p>Customers can use this model on any level, or use it to gradually transition from operating their own central station to having their accounts monitored by a third party monitoring center.</p>
<p>“A lot of people are hesitant to give up that complete control over that experience with their customers, and we think there’s some opportunity there for them to have the right amount of control without having to have all the expense of running their own central station,” Bailey said.</p>
<p>The main restriction with this hybrid monitoring is that they would need to transfer to the company’s Stages platform, Bailey said. The Stages platform is also a benefit, as smaller dealers who typically might not have the ability to run the platform can now take advantage of it.</p>
<p>AvantGuard has been working on its hybrid monitoring options for more than a year, Bailey said. AvantGuard specifically talked with Stages about the process and discussed potential options with dealers.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="AvantGuard offers hybrid monitoring options" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 08 Feb 2017 17:35:20 +0000Spencer Ives19407 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/avantguard-offers-hybrid-monitoring-options#commentsUCC completes Stages conversion, mobile app for dealershttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/ucc-completes-stages-conversion-mobile-app-dealers
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<div class="field-item even"> Company also developing expanded technical support offering</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2014-03-12T00:00:00-04:00">03/12/2014</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Leif Kothe</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>SAN ANTONIO—The big milestone early in 2014 for United Central Control, a wholesale monitoring provider based here, is the now-complete conversion to Stages, a technology platform from Secure Global Systems that Tracey Ritchie, vice president and general manager of UCC, calls an “investment towards the future.”</p>
<p>The completed adoption of the platform caps off a complex, three-year process—one of which was spent implementing and then troubleshooting the system to ensure it ran smoothly upon going live for the company’s 600 dealers and 200,000 accounts.</p>
<p>UCC Dealers, Ritchie said, are now ready to reap the rewards.</p>
<p>“The accessibility of the system has been appreciated by the dealers,” said Ritchie, lead project manager for the implementation. “There’s more information available at their fingertips and lot of capabilities for them on our website.”</p>
<p>The mobile app was among the most sought-after functionalities for dealers, Mark Matlock, senior vice president of sales and marketing, told <em>Security Systems News</em>. “Delivering that app to dealers has been really high on our priority list,” he said.</p>
<p>The app allows dealers to view history and place accounts on test. Matlock added that customers can also now access recordings in the account history of the website.</p>
<p>“When they want to hear it, they want to hear it, and dealers can get it instantaneously now,” Matlock said.<br /> <br />In addition to the Stages conversion and the mobile app, UCC is working on another initiative expected to come to fruition in the near future: A technical support service that dealers will be able to use after hours for tier one technical issues.</p>
<p>“Historically we’ve just given those calls to dealers as service calls, but we’re now looking at hiring a staff to answer those calls and provide technical support directly to consumers for dealers that want it,” Matlock said. “That’s something we’re looking to do pretty much right away.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="UCC completes Stages conversion, mobile app for dealers" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 12 Mar 2014 18:50:08 +0000Tess Nacelewicz17316 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/ucc-completes-stages-conversion-mobile-app-dealers#commentsVivint transfers all its accounts to stages automation platformhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/vivint-transfers-all-its-accounts-stages-automation-platform
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2011-03-31T10:09:15-04:00">03/31/2011</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Daniel Gelinas</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"><p>PROVO, Utah—Vivint announced on March 17 that it was in the process of transferring all of its more than 500,000 monitored accounts to Secure Global Solutions’ stages central station automation platform. Vivint expects to have the transfer completed by the end of April, with <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/new-apx-central-now-full-operation" target="_blank">both of Vivint’s monitoring centers</a> going through the switch over.</p>
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What prompted the move?</p>
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“Stages simplifies the job of our dispatchers, allowing them to focus on providing the exceptional service we require,” Vivint VP of operations Lindsay Grauling told <em>Security Systems News</em>.</p>
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SGS VP Hank Goldberg said the relationship is a good fit.</p>
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“Vivint has all the regular problems of a central station in managing dispatch. The introduction of ‘scripting’ allows Vivint to respond to alarms in a controlled, predictable way,” Goldberg said. “Vivint should realize a great reduction in training, improved response time to alarms, reduced cost and increased quality.”</p>
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Grauling agreed.</p>
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“SGS’ flexibility and desire to innovate make them the perfect partner as we explore all of the home automation services that can benefit our customers,” Grauling said. Vivint, formerly APX Alarm, <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/apx-changes-name-vivint" target="_blank">changed its name and incorporated a home automation/control focus</a> in February. Another Utah-based monitoring center, <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/avantguard-converts-all-accounts-sgs%27-stages-platform" target="_blank">AvantGuard, also in February switched all of its monitored accounts to the stages platform</a>, as well.</p>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Vivint transfers all its accounts to stages automation platform" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:09:15 +0000legacy_editor14517 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/vivint-transfers-all-its-accounts-stages-automation-platform#commentsAvantGuard converts all accounts to SGS' stages platformhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/avantguard-converts-all-accounts-sgs-stages-platform
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2011-02-03T11:01:48-05:00">02/03/2011</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Daniel Gelinas</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"><p>OGDEN, Utah—AvantGuard Monitoring Centers has converted all of its 110,000 accounts to the stages central station platform from SGS. The move was started on Jan. 18 and completed on Feb. 2 and, according to AvantGuard president Josh Garner, went off without a hitch.</p>
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“This was a huge undertaking, but our preparation has made for a very smooth transition. When it came time for game day, we had rehearsed what would happen numerous times. There were no surprises, and really no hiccups to speak of. It was all about practice, practice, practice,” Garner said. “One of the things that we really pressed SGS for was to allow us to do the conversion ourselves. We have the expertise in house, and we just figured … we would really learn the data structure and we would be better users of the software. I think SGS reluctantly acquiesced in letting us do our own conversion. I think they were concerned that we wouldn't be able to finish the job, and they would then have to clean up our mess.”</p>
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Of the conversion, SGS VP Hank Goldberg said AvantGuard was to be commended.</p>
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“To begin, Josh agreed to carry the burden of conversion. One of the most difficult tasks is to manage the information transition to a new database while making certain dealers are both involved and educated,” Goldberg said. “There was no hesitation. The IT effort at a technical level was challenging, but a great group led by Scott Rich was there to support the project. Everyone took on the conversion as their problem. Suzie Nye led her team of central station managers, data entry managers and staff and all took part in making sure the new processes worked well and were communicated to all parties.”</p>
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What was behind the move to switch to a new monitoring platform?</p>
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“We picked SGS not so much because of what their software can do, but what we knew they could do as our partners. So far we are ecstatic about the product and the relationship,” Garner said. A key advantage to the software is the so-called “action plans—basically step-by-step decision trees that guide an operator through a dispatch. It’s a total game changer for us in terms of delivering consistent quality responses to alarms,” Garner said. “We are also excited to be among a group of elite fellow stages users. With fellow users like Rapid Response, MACE, USA Central, and some others that are in the works, we feel like the little brother who has been allowed to play on the same court as the big guys. With software it’s often the users who help drive the innovation, and we know we have been beneficiaries already of some of the innovative ideas of the other users.”</p>
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Goldberg said stages would make operations at AvantGuard better than they were before.</p>
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“Stages was built to solve modern dispatch problems. When central stations reach a certain size or try to service select markets, the old solutions fall short. If you consider the ‘system’ as a database, you miss the mark. The issues are ‘process’ and ‘integration’ with a focus on communications,” Goldberg said. “Stages reduces calls made and calls received—new calling tools allow a central station to communicate to users as management defines and as the consumer desires. Voice for many people is not always the preferred method.”</p>
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Various other central stations, including <a target="_blank" href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/mace-csss-converts-sgs39-stages">Mace CSSS</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/just-bhs-upgrades-stages">Brink’s Home Security</a> before its name change and sale, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/rapid-response-converts-sgs39-stages">Rapid Response</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/sgs-bhs-g4s-prepare-industry-39evolutionary-leap-forward39">G4S</a>, have previously converted to the stages central station automation platform.</p>
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<span property="dc:title" content="AvantGuard converts all accounts to SGS&#039; stages platform" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:01:48 +0000legacy_editor14361 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/avantguard-converts-all-accounts-sgs-stages-platform#comments